Species Distribution Modelling Course

Date: 3-4 November 2014

Venue: UCL, Gower St. London, WC1E 6BT (Rooms to be confirmed)

Species Distribution Modelling (also termed Ecological Niche
Modelling) has been widely applied to address a diverse range of research
questions in the study of ecology, evolution, and conservation. Applications
include guiding field surveys to accelerate species discovery, projecting
potential impacts of climate change, predicting species invasions, supporting
reserve planning, investigating ecological niche evolution, and estimating
potential disease spread. The rapid take-up of these methods
has led to the development of multiple modelling tools that are relatively easy
to use (e.g., Maxent and packages in R). However, the underlying theory behind
the approach, including full appreciation of misuses as well as uses, is often
not properly appreciated.

This two-day course at UCL’s main Bloomsbury campus in
London will use a combination of talks and group discussions to train PhD
students and early career researchers in the theory and applications of Species
distribution Modelling. The course will be taught by Dr. Richard Pearson. We envision the following training outcomes: (1) Knowledge
of the theory behind SDMs, including understanding of uses and misuses; (2)
Understanding of the difficulties and statistical approaches for evaluating
SDMs; (3) Introduction to the diverse potential applications of SDMs and the
potential pitfalls of each; (4) Networking.

The course is made possible by a NERC short course advanced
training grant awarded to UCL. Up to 25 students who are currently funded by NERC can participate
and all costs, including travel and accommodation, will be covered. Additional places for non-NERC students may
also become available (depending on the number of NERC students who apply). Non-NERC students would be
required to cover their own costs but would not be charged a course fee; please
complete the application form and we will notify you if a place becomes
available. Note also that we plan to film parts of the course and make
them freely available online after the event via UCL’s public e-learning
platform UCLeXtend.

Registration has now closed for this course.

Please include
a short description (up to 150 words) of your research and why you would like
to take the course. The
deadline for applications is September 5th and all applicants will
be notified the following week if they have been assigned a place on the
course.